Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.369.7805, 312.286.6624 (cell) phunter@colum.edu
For Immediate Release
November 20, 2008
Editors Note: Beau is available for interviews. Photos & additional background information available upon request.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named Columbia College Television Department Professor Beau Beaudoin, Ph.D., the 2008 Illinois Professor of the Year. Beaudoin was selected from nearly 300 top professors in the United States.
Beaudoin began her career at Columbia in 1986 as an adjunct faculty member in the college’s television department, progressing to full-time instructor. Since 1996 she has been a tenured professor, teaching classes in the college’s School of Media Arts. She also spent eight years as an adjunct at the School of the Art Institute Chicago where she created a required graduate course, Challenges of Equity: Cultural Diversity, Race & Class, for arts educators. For more than 15 years she taught at Hirsch High School of Communications where she served as chair of both the music and radio/television departments.
Beaudoin notes three early influences on her pedagogy: witnessing irrational violence as a high school teacher; researching how students’ perceptions about race and culture shape their learning; and recognizing the privilege and responsibility of teaching the next generation of media makers.
When Beau (as she is known to everyone) joined Columbia’s television department, she lectured in courses such as Aesthetics of Television and Television Arts Production. It became apparent to her that the curriculum included coursework that reproduced existing media practices with the primary emphasis on new technology. She lobbied for a curriculum that would educate students about their ethical responsibility as future media professionals and produce new racial and cultural scripts. The end result of her grass-roots effort is a course called Culture, Race & Media.
“The primary objective was moving beyond production of television, film and other media into analysis of the values implicit in each genre, participating in projects within our media community and integrating self-examination of personal cultural and racial identity,” said Beaudoin. The students’ positive response to this course transformed one class of 12 students a decade ago to the current 18, fully-enrolled sections of the course, taught by instructors from several disciplines in the college.
Beaudoin is the recipient of many teaching awards, honors and grants. In 1995 she received the Excellence in Teaching Award which was preceded by several annual Excellence in Teaching nominations from Columbia College. Hirsch High School of Communications, Chicago Board of Education honored her with the Teacher of the Year Award. She was awarded a grant from National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation through the Association of American Colleges & Universities for the creation of her college-wide diversity coursework.
Her commitment to education extends past her coursework, workshops and mentoring new faculty at Columbia College. She has worked with at-risk high school students in outreach programs; produced, edited and instructed students with the Chicago Board of Education’s Creative Arts for Drug-Free Schools program; and instruct young, urban teachers part-time in Columbia’s Educational Studies program.
Beaudoin is a first-generation college graduate from Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. She resides in Oak Park, Illinois with her husband. A life long student, she is currently in her fourth semester of Spanish lessons and will travel to Costa Rica this summer for an immersion program.
This year there were winners in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. The state winners were selected by CASE and Carnegie. Dr. Beaudoin was selected from faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie “to do all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of teaching.” It is the only advanced-study center for teachers in the world and the third-oldest foundation in the nation. Its nonprofit research activities are conducted by a small group of distinguished scholars.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is one of the largest international associations of education institutions, serving more than 3,400 universities, colleges, schools, and related organization in 61 countries. CASE is the leading resource for professional development, information and standards in the fields of fundraising, communications, marketing and alumni relations.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to nearly 12,500 students in over 120 undergraduate and graduate programs, including film & video, art & design, arts management, television, radio, music, interactive multimedia – all within a liberal arts context. Founded in 1890 as a communications school, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a “hands-on minds-on” approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the current leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D., Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Columbia is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is accredited as a teacher training institution by the Illinois State Board of Education. For further information visit www.colum.edu.